Attorney for Huntsville man scheduled for execution not ready to discuss defense strategy

MONTGOMERY -- A lawyer for a Huntsville man scheduled to be executed next month for the 1994 murder-robbery of a convenience store clerk declined today to discuss the condemned man's appeal strategy.

The Alabama Supreme Court announced Tuesday that Derrick O'Neal Mason, 37, would be put to death by lethal injection at Holman Prison on Sept. 22.

Mason is represented by Brian Esser and Ona Wang from the New York City law firm of Baker Hostetler.

Esser said in a phone interview that he was not prepared to comment on what steps the defense would take to block the execution because he had not had an opportunity to speak with Mason.

Mason was convicted in June 1995 for the shooting death of Angela Cagle, 25, of Hazel Green during a robbery at a convenience store on Sparkman Drive.

Mason would be the fifth person put to death in Alabama this year. He would be the third man executed since the state changed the first drug used in its execution cocktail from sodium thiopental to pentobarbital.

On March 27, 1994, Cagle was the lone clerk on the late night shift at the convenience store at the corner of Executive and Sparkman drives. About 3:40 a.m., a customer found Cagle's nude body sprawled on a desk in a rear storage room of the store.

Prosecutors said Mason shot Cagle twice in the face at close range with small-caliber bullets after ordering her to take her clothes off. An autopsy showed that she was not raped, according to authorities.

Police arrested Mason four days after the crime. According to authorities, he lived three blocks from the convenience store.

Police said they seized a semi-automatic pistol from Mason that could have been used in the crime.

In an interview about a month after his conviction, Mason told The Huntsville Times that the night of the murder, he had been drinking and smoking marijuana laced with embalming fluid at a friend's home since 4 p.m.